Will Guns Be The Next Identity Marker?
As the topic of gun violence has been greatly debated in the political world, we have come to a moment where people from both sides have been put in a position to rethink gun policy. Seventeen students from the school were victims from this incident and the uproar of both political sides can be seen in the media. One would say that it is caused by the untreated mental health of students that has caused the shooter to do what he did. As for the other side, they would say that the excessive access to guns has become the cause of the problem. Meanwhile, the course of the debate has been derailed as President Trump tweeted his alternative solution that states:
When I read the tweet, as a future teacher, I feel extremely uncomfortable with the fact that there would be guns in every classroom if all teachers would agree to be armed. Although the purpose of his solution is to protect the students and set parameters for teachers to be “trained,” I still feel agitated with the fact that school settings are normalized to be unsafe and that teachers should go to such an extreme measure as wielding a gun. This problem should be confronted and eradicated from its core, but instead, it was faced using fire against fire. In this case, guns with guns.
I read this tweet from a Vox article titled “The Latest School Safety Proposals Ignore The Experiences of Students of Color.” It came up, when I googled “oppression at a school setting.” At first, I was confused on why this article would be a form of oppression at school. However, when I read through the article, I was not aware of how President Trump’s solution would cause a side effect toward minoritized groups, especially people of color. At first, I was just thinking about how his statement would set teachers as bad role models for the students. I did not think that arming teachers of color would put them in a more vulnerable position to be harmed. It is stated in the article that, based on research, people would react more negatively toward black people who are armed compared with white people due to the stereotype that armed people of color are prone to be attackers (vox.com).
If the President’s opinion would be implemented, it would result in another layer of institutionalized racism by putting people of color at a disadvantage for being armed. Although ALL armed teachers would be advantaged in getting yearly bonuses, the people who may harm armed teacher of color would be considered not guilty since false assumptions might happen. However, people of color would still get the blame on how they walk or even dress. This situation reminds me of the theory that Sensoy & DiAngelo (2016) states about how “… cultural deficit theory blames people of Color for their struggles within a racist society while obscuring larger structural barriers. [It] also exempts dominant culture from the need to play any role in the eradication of racism” (129). From this theory, it would explain the fact that the dominant group (white people) would not be disadvantaged for people of color have been socialized to have a cultural flaw instead of being the victim of institutional racism.
From the implications that have been discussed about the by-products of President Trump’s statement, it seems that “being armed” could become the next official identity marker of an individual as it would give or take away power from a teacher. According to Crenshaw (2015), he states that, “… intersectionality is not just about identities but about the institutions that use identity to exclude and privilege.” In this case, intersectionality, which is the concept of one person would lose their privilege due to their interconnected minoritized identity markers, would be the case. White people would gain more privilege by being armed with guns, while teachers of color with guns would be even more powerless. Although “being armed” is not an identity marker before, in this situation, it would seem that wielding guns could add/take away privilege points depending on the person’s identity and its context. From all the reasons, let us hope that President Trump’s statement would never be enacted.
References.
Crenshaw, K. (2015). Why Intersectionality Can’t Wait? The Washington Post.
Sensoy, O., & DiAngelo, R. (2016). Chapter 8: Understanding The Structural Nature of Oppression Through Racism. In Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education. Teachers College Press.
